Nuremberg Desk Eagle
Eagle dated 1939 modeled after the massive 6-meter tall iron eagles positioned on each side of the main podium (Ehrentribüne) at the Party Rally Grounds in Nuremberg. Conceived by the preeminent sculptor Dr. Kurt Schmid-Ehmen, who was also responsible for designing Nazi Germany’s official Reichsadler Nazi Germany. Engraved at base with the text “SCHMUCK-WETTWEWERB, DER R.B.D. VILLACH, 1939”.
The history of the Reichsadler (Imperial Eagle) dates back to the Roman era, and was used by the Holy Roman Empire (HRE)—a feudal proto-German polity—as its heraldic motif derived from the Roman eagle, and continued to be used by successive German states. Lasting from the 10th to the 19th century and stretching from the Meuse to Vistula, the HRE is considered the medieval predecessor to the modern German state. This perennial continuity in German statehood was often alluded to by the Nazis, with the HRE being referred to as the “First Reich” in Nazi nomenclature, preceding the Imperial “Second Reich” and Hitler’s Third Reich.
This fabled medieval empire was romanticized as part of the national myth espoused by the Nazis of an idealized, pre-enlightenment Germany. Naturally, much inspiration was taken from its feudal concepts such as its Imperial Eagle motif, adapted to fit the needs and workings of the new reich. The calls for a Tausendjähriges Reich (Thousand-year Reich) sought for the Third Reich to emulate its millennia-spanning predecessor.
Fascist ideology tends to draw elements from the past that are incorporated into a contemporary narrative of interconnectedness and meaningfulness that is applied to a people’s current existence. It is this unique temporal relationship that distinguishes Fascism from generic nationalism, bestowing it with a deeply spiritual component that elevates it to a belief system beyond a mere political ideology. Within the Nazi Reichsadler, we find a metaphor for the fascist nation-state, a superorganism composed of the people, their land and the state itself.
“The state is a means to an end. Its end lies in the preservation and advancement of a community of physically and spiritually similar beings. This preservation comprises first of all existence as a race, and thereby permits free development of all the forces dormant in this race…Thus, the highest purpose of the state is concern for the preservation of those original racial elements which bestow culture and create the beauty and dignity of higher humanity. We can conceive of the state only as the living organism of a people, which not only assures the preservation of this people, but by the development of its spiritual and ideal abilities leads it to the highest freedom. The highest aim of human existence is not the preservation of the race…For in the long run systems of government are not maintained by the pressure of force, but by faith in their soundness and in the truthfulness with which they represent and advance the interests of a people.” — Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (1925)
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Eagle dated 1939 modeled after the massive 6-meter tall iron eagles positioned on each side of the main podium (Ehrentribüne) at the Party Rally Grounds in Nuremberg. Conceived by the preeminent sculptor Dr. Kurt Schmid-Ehmen, who was also responsible for designing Nazi Germany’s official Reichsadler Nazi Germany. Engraved at base with the text “SCHMUCK-WETTWEWERB, DER R.B.D. VILLACH, 1939”.
The history of the Reichsadler (Imperial Eagle) dates back to the Roman era, and was used by the Holy Roman Empire (HRE)—a feudal proto-German polity—as its heraldic motif derived from the Roman eagle, and continued to be used by successive German states. Lasting from the 10th to the 19th century and stretching from the Meuse to Vistula, the HRE is considered the medieval predecessor to the modern German state. This perennial continuity in German statehood was often alluded to by the Nazis, with the HRE being referred to as the “First Reich” in Nazi nomenclature, preceding the Imperial “Second Reich” and Hitler’s Third Reich.
This fabled medieval empire was romanticized as part of the national myth espoused by the Nazis of an idealized, pre-enlightenment Germany. Naturally, much inspiration was taken from its feudal concepts such as its Imperial Eagle motif, adapted to fit the needs and workings of the new reich. The calls for a Tausendjähriges Reich (Thousand-year Reich) sought for the Third Reich to emulate its millennia-spanning predecessor.
Fascist ideology tends to draw elements from the past that are incorporated into a contemporary narrative of interconnectedness and meaningfulness that is applied to a people’s current existence. It is this unique temporal relationship that distinguishes Fascism from generic nationalism, bestowing it with a deeply spiritual component that elevates it to a belief system beyond a mere political ideology. Within the Nazi Reichsadler, we find a metaphor for the fascist nation-state, a superorganism composed of the people, their land and the state itself.
“The state is a means to an end. Its end lies in the preservation and advancement of a community of physically and spiritually similar beings. This preservation comprises first of all existence as a race, and thereby permits free development of all the forces dormant in this race…Thus, the highest purpose of the state is concern for the preservation of those original racial elements which bestow culture and create the beauty and dignity of higher humanity. We can conceive of the state only as the living organism of a people, which not only assures the preservation of this people, but by the development of its spiritual and ideal abilities leads it to the highest freedom. The highest aim of human existence is not the preservation of the race…For in the long run systems of government are not maintained by the pressure of force, but by faith in their soundness and in the truthfulness with which they represent and advance the interests of a people.” — Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (1925)
